Meteorite cargo could solve origin-of-life riddle

A CHEMICAL vital for life on Earth may have arrived ready-made from space. Unexpectedly, a chondritic meteorite has been found to contain large amounts of ammonia, a nitrogen-rich chemical vital for forming the basic building blocks of life.

Explaining how enough ammonia for life appeared on the early Earth has been a puzzle, because sunlight rapidly destroys ammonia gas in the atmosphere.

Now, Sandra Pizzarello of Arizona State University in Tempe and her colleagues report finding abundant ammonia after boiling powder from a meteorite in water and exposing it to high pressures, mimicking conditions on the early Earth. Pizzarello suggests direct delivery of the fertiliser to Earth is an "attractive explanation" for how it became abundant (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1014961108).

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